tory of the Governor's illegal and arbitrary act; and it was resolved that a humble petition should be presented to the King, beseeching him to remove Major-General Cunninghame from the government of the island, on account of his oppressive conduct in extorting money from the people, contrary to the law and rights of the Legislature, and to punish with his Majesty's displeasure such members of his Majesty's council as had concurred in the Governor's arbitrary and illegal exactions'. This petition was forwarded to Mr. Estwick, the agent of the island, to be presented to the King. Lord George Germaine, although he did not approve of the language adopted in this petition, and especially disapproved that part which solicited the removal of the Governor, denied to Mr. Estwick that the Governor was acting under his instructions with regard to the fees. The petition was referred by his Majesty's commands to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations.

These proceedings, which ought to have taught the Governor that he had not ingratiated himself into the public favour, did not prevent his making another attempt to have his salary increased. For this purpose he summoned the Assembly on the 28th of November, and laid before them a letter he had received from the Secretary of State, expressing his Majesty's disapprobation of the reduction of the settlement on the Governor, and his displeasure at the stipulation made by the Assembly to increase the salary only in case the four-and-half per cent. duty were removed. It concluded with the hope that they would consent to grant the additional thousand pounds, and make the necessary arrangements for passing a levy-bill. The House of Assembly returned an answer, stating that they were grieved at having incurred their Sovereign's displeasure, but that under the existing distress they could not consent to augment his Excellency's salary nor to pass a levy-bill. The House continued sitting till after sunset, in expectation of being adjourned according to the established custom by the Governor's order; but receiving no directions, they adjourned of their own authority, to meet at the end of four weeks, at the same hour in the evening2. Disappointed in his expectation of obtaining an increase of salary, and of prevailing upon the House to pass a levy-bill, the Governor now gave his assent to the former bill, which conferred two thousand pounds upon him, and dissolved the Assembly by proclamation. He issued writs for a new election at a distance of two months. Nearly the same members were returned at the general election, with the exception of Mr. Duke, the patriotic and talented member for St. Michael's, whose death took place in the interval: he was generally lamented, as his firmness and intrepidity, his integrity and intelligence, rendered his loss a public calamity.

i These members were Henry Frere, Ireneus Moe, Robert Brathwaite, John Best, Joseph Keeling and John Ince, Esqs.

* Poyer's History of Barbados, p. 479.

On the 20th December 1780, a manifesto against Holland complained of the succour which the States General afforded directly and indirectly to the King's rebellious subjects, and a war with Holland became inevitable. Admiral Rodney and General Vaughan arrived on the 3rd of February 1781 before St. Eustatius, and sent a summons to the Governor to deliver up the island. Their object having been kept a profound secret, M. de Graaf the Governor, who had not been informed of the rupture between England and Holland, could scarcely believe that the officer who delivered the summons was serious; and being incapable of any defence the island was surrendered'.

Governor Cunninghame had received early information of the intended declaration of war. Privateering was carried on by the merchants of Barbados with great spirit, and the Governor took advantage of this circumstance to exact the most extravagant fees for commissions. On this occasion he granted letters of marque against the Dutch previous to his being authorized to do so; and as many valuable Dutch prizes had been captured under commissions thus prematurely granted, they were either taken from the captors by his Majesty's cruizers, or seized by the Governor's orders after they were brought into port, and condemned as droits of the Admiralty. The captors appealed to the King against this injustice; meanwhile Mr. Weekes, the judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, acted with integrity and determination in protecting the appellants, for which he was suspended from office and Mr. William Morris appointed as his successor. Mr. Weekes presented a memorial to the King, and was re-instated by his Majesty's special order.

The new Assembly met on the 14th of February 1781. The Governor in his address recommended the House in the strongest terms to take the safety of the island into serious consideration; the rupture with Holland had increased the danger, and a strong armament from France was daily expected. The Assembly still pleaded their inability to pass a levy-bill, nor could they invest his Excellency, as long as he continued to exhibit every disposition to exercise extraordinary powers, with an increase of authority by passing a militia-bill.

The West India planters and merchants had petitioned the King, complaining that a sufficient naval force was not kept in those seas for

1 The value of the property found upon the island was estimated at above three millions sterling, exclusive of the shipping, of which above one hundred and fifty sail of ships, many of them richly laden, were taken in the bay ; a Dutch thirty-eightgun frigate and five smaller ones were not included in this number. Admiral Rodney had thrown aspersions upon the merchants in England and the West Indies engaged in the trade with St. Eustatius, and accused them of being smugglers and traitors to their country, which they refuted with great indignation. The indiscriminate confiscation of property at St. Eustatius involved Admiral Rodney in some very disagreeable disputes, and his conduct was brought before Parliament by Mr. Burke: the demanded inquiry was however rejected by a large majority.

the protection of the British colonies. Tobago had capitulated to a small French squadron after a gallant and obstinate resistance by Governor Ferguson. As soon as the enemy's squadron was seen, Governor Ferguson despatched Captain Barnes of the Rattlesnake with the intelligence to Sir George Rodney, then lying with his squadron in Carlisle Bay, who contented himself with despatching Rear-Admiral Drake with six sail of the line, three frigates, one regiment and two additional companies consisting of five hundred and twenty-eight men, under the command of General Skene. Previous to the arrival of this succour, the whole French fleet from Martinique, consisting of twenty-four line-of-battle ships, was cruizing off the island, and prevented Admiral Drake from landing his troops. The Admiral hauled his wind and returned to Barbados. Governor Ferguson capitulated on the 1st of June 1781.

Admiral Rodney received intelligence of what had passed on the 2nd of June, and left Carlisle Bay the following day with General Vaughan and the troops on board. Upon their arrival off Tobago the island was in the possession of the French, and their fleet of twenty-four sail of the line in sight; but Sir George Rodney, suspecting that the enemy wished to decoy him among the Grenadines and then proceed to attack Barbados, did not attempt to bring them to action.

The capture of Tobago gave Major-General Cunninghame another opportunity of warning the Assembly of their imminent danger. He pretended to possess information that the French had a design upon Barbados. This information appears to have been correct, and, as the sequel proved, the inhabitants on this occasion only owed their escape from the horrors of a siege to a fortunate circumstance. Upon the 11th of January 1782, the Marquis de Bouille landed with eight thousand troops at St. Christopher's, supported by the Count de Grasse with twenty-nine sail of the line. It was the original intention of the French commander to have attacked Barbados, where Sir Samuel Hood, with eighteen ships of the line, was at anchor; hoping by a joint cannonade and bombardment from the shore and the ships to destroy the fleet in Carlisle Bay. Adverse winds drove the French so far to leeward that the object was changed, and the chastisement fell upon St. Christopher1.

On the motion of Lord North, on the 25th of January 1782, the Parliament resolved unanimously "that the sum of eighty thousand pounds be granted to his Majesty for affording immediate assistance to our unhappy fellow-subjects in the island of Barbados, and to relieve and support such of them as have been reduced to distress and necessity by the late dreadful calamity which in the month of October last ravaged and laid waste the greatest part of the island." This liberality of the nation and their sympathy with the ruined inhabitants of Barbados deserve the greater praise, as England was at that time involved in a most expensive 1 Compare Annual Register for 1782, and Beatson's Memoirs, vol. v.

war. But this assistance was not restricted to the Parliament; individuals came forward with alacrity and munificence to add their share toward the relief of the sufferers. The generosity of the citizens of Dublin stands conspicuous: Sir Edward Newenham, Lord-Mayor of that city, convened a meeting, to consider the most effectual and expeditious method of relieving the wants and necessities of the sufferers in Barbados. Twenty thousand pounds were quickly raised, towards which the house of Latouche and Sons contributed one thousand pounds. The money was invested in the purchase of articles of the first necessity, which were shipped to Barbados, where they arrived at a most opportune moment, and were judiciously distributed to the distressed under the direction of the Governor. Grateful for this assistance, the representatives of the people unanimously transmitted a vote of thanks by their Speaker to Sir Edward Newenham and his worthy fellow-citizens. The sense of their gratitude was deeply impressed on the hearts of the inhabitants; nor was it the evanescent feeling of the moment which dictated these grateful expressions, -they survived in their hearts; and when after the lapse of more than half a century dearth and famine spread over unfortunate Ireland, that noble act of former years was not forgotten; it called forth from the representatives of the people of the present time a feeling of gratitude which had been deeply cherished in their hearts, and the House of Assembly came, on the 3rd of March, 1847, to the unanimous resolution of voting for the relief of their distressed fellow-subjects in Ireland as large a sum as their circumstances would permit. Two thousand pounds sterling were therefore remitted to the Relief Fund in Ireland, besides large contributions from private individuals; nor let it be forgotten that Barbados was the first of the British colonies which assisted Ireland according to her means.

When the vote of the House of Commons was communicated to Mr. Estwick, a committee of the principal merchants and planters of Barbados resident in London was formed, on the recommendation of the treasury, for carrying the generous resolution of the Parliament into execution. A committee of correspondence was appointed in Barbados, which was to consist of the Governor and members of the Council, the Speaker and a certain number of the House of Assembly. As is frequently the case on such occasions, diversity of opinion and a want of concert prevailed, and many months elapsed before the benevolent intentions of Parliament were even partially carried into effect. It is distressing that in a great measure we have to record a mal-appropriation of considerable sums granted for the relief of the distressed. The House of Assembly had prepared a bill which vested the whole donation in a board of commissioners, composed of the Governor and a certain number of members from each branch of the Legislature, with power to distribute the grant among the sufferers. This did not suit his Excellency, whose plan

was to dispose of the money otherwise: he had already proposed to the Secretary of State the policy of applying the benefaction of the English public to the erection and repair of the fortifications; the Council on the other hand wished to appropriate the money to the payment of the public debt, and to distribute merely the provisions among the sufferers; the bill of the Assembly was therefore unanimously rejected. In consequence of this want of unanimity, the provisions, many of which were of a perishable nature, suffered from the delay, besides which there was an expense of two hundred pounds a month for storage of the four cargoes of provisions which had arrived. They were ultimately divided into eleven equal parts, one of which was assigned to the vestry of each parish to be conscientiously distributed. A Board of Commissioners was subsequently constituted, according to directions received from England, which excluded the Governor, with full power to make a final distribution of the bounty in any manner they should think proper; and "the boon which was intended for the relief of the poor distressed, was applied to lessen the taxes on the opulent possessors of slaves1." Out of this fund the Board provided for the repair of the townhall; one thousand pounds was allotted to the rebuilding of the new bridge; nineteen hundred pounds were granted to six parishes for rebuilding their churches; fifteen hundred pounds had been paid by the London Committee to Mr. Estwick, as agent of the island, to conduct a prosecution which the Assembly had determined upon against the Governor; and of the balance, eighteen hundred pounds were allotted to the sufferers in each parish, to be distributed proportionally amongst those whose losses did not exceed fifteen hundred pounds: five years however elapsed before the distribution was accomplished2.

The Assembly still refusing to pass a levy-bill, the credit of the colony was almost annihilated; many of the public officers had not been paid their salaries for a considerable time, and were actually driven from their stations. The Assembly remained immovable, and showed a spirit which was certainly not calculated to lead to a reconciliation with the Governor; nor did this delay relieve their constituents from the taxes which they would have sooner or later to pay for the maintenance of order and government; but on the contrary, as soon as the vindictive spirit of the Assembly should subside, those taxes in their accumulated form would fall the heavier upon them.

The success of the French was so great, that in February 1782, of all the British colonies in the West Indies, Jamaica, Barbados and Antigua alone remained in the possession of the English. The injury done to the inhabitants of St. Christopher's by the siege and capitulation was estimated at one hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling.

Sir George Rodney, with twelve sail of the line, arrived at Barbados on 2 Ibid. p. 523.

Poyer's History, p. 522.